scholarly journals EMI, international visibility and competitiveness

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-222
Author(s):  
Rosana Villares

One of the main goals of Spanish higher education is the consolidation of an internationalised university system through international visibility, attractiveness, competitiveness and collaboration. As the literature reports, English plays a relevant role in internationalisation strategies, so this paper examines the relationship between internationalisation and English in institutional documents. Corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis were used to identify language-related strategies and interpret the language beliefs underlying the promotion of English in the Spanish university context. Results showed that the main language-related strategy was English-medium instruction (EMI) because it promotes the international visibility of universities and helps local students improve their foreign language competence. Measures to support bilingual education were found regarding language training and accreditation. Furthermore, the discourses of globalisation, excellence and employability support the position of English as the international language. Therefore, the introduction of English as another working language in the universities’ linguistic repertoire is widely accepted, although institutional support and constant language training measures are considered essential for the success of internationalisation goals.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 195
Author(s):  
Amal Riyadh Kitishat ◽  
Murad Al Kayed ◽  
Mohammad Al-Ajalein

The present study employs corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to investigate the attitudes of Jordanian news towards the Syrian refugee crisis. The corpus of the research, which consists of 10140 articles (Word types: 103170 and Word tokens: 1956589), were taken from the Petra news agency between 2016 and 2018. Antconc Tools Version 3.4.4w was used to analyze the data. The study used corpus statistical tools of collocates and concordance. Collocates tool used to create a list of 200 collocates associated with the words: /lad3iʔ/ ‘refugee’, /lad3iʔi:n/ ‘refugees’, /su:ri:/ ‘Syrian’, and /su:ryi:n/ ‘Syrians’. These collocates were organized into two thematic categories: ‘services and resources’ and ‘Jordanians and Syrians’. The study used a concordance tool to unveil the attitudes of newspapers towards the Syrian refugee crisis. The findings of the study showed that Jordanians see Syrians as “brothers” and “guests”. However, Jordanian newspapers overstated the negative effect of Syrian refugees on the Jordanian economy, education, healthcare, etc. Jordanians were frustrated because Syrians compete with them on their resources and governmental services.


Author(s):  
Павелків К. М.

The article presents the results of experimental research of foreign language competence level of future social sphere specialist. The experimental data are compared with the results of students’ under study self-assessment of their foreign language competence level. The article shows the results of the influence of methodological system of foreign language training of future social sphere specialist on the increase of the level of foreign language competence among participants of experimental groups. Creative, medium, satisfactory and unsatisfactory levels of foreign language competence of future social sphere specialist are characterized from the point of view students’ reflexion. The research approves the effectiveness of pedagogical influences introduced at the forming stage of the experiment through approbation of the author’s methodical system of foreign language training in the university.


Author(s):  
Maria Fotiadou

Abstract This paper examines the language used by careers services in UK universities. Using a combination of critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics methods and tools, the analysis of 2.6 million words collected from 58 UK university websites shows that the services highlight the quantity and variety of resources and assistance offered to Higher Education (HE) students. In addition, the close analysis of linguistic data brings to light a commonly used semantic pattern where the services act as the enablers of the students’ self-beneficiary actions. The main idea communicated in these webpages is that if HE students want to succeed in the graduate job market they need to prepare for the world of work, follow instructions and develop their employability. This course of action is presented by UK universities as natural or common sense. The interpretation and evaluation of linguistic patterns that emerge from the corpus-based analysis challenges the notion of employability and its association with the idea of ‘empowering’ young people to successfully compete in the graduate job market.


2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad S. Haider

Abstract Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) investigates the relationship between language, power, and society. Corpus linguistics (CL) is the study of language based on examples of real life language use. Over the last two decades, various scholars have combined some approaches and notions of CDA with the analytical framework of CL to examine the representation of several phenomena in relatively large texts. This study follows a corpus-assisted (critical) discourse analysis approach to investigate a 2.5 million word corpus of Arabic news articles by Jordan’s News Agency (PETRA). It demonstrates how some researchers following this approach may make some decisions, at some stages of their analysis, which are likely to affect their findings. These potential decisions may include selecting what statistical measures to use, what threshold to consider, what terms from the frequency, cluster, and collocation results to further investigate, which concordance lines to include in their study, and some others. In this study, I argue that some of these decisions can be made to suit the researchers’ preconceived assumptions and pre-existing hypotheses. The study concludes that using corpus linguistic techniques to discursively analyze large data reduces but not completely removes researchers’ bias.


2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 781-813 ◽  

In the article I model an alternative critical discourse analysis (CDA) pedagogy which is based on an ethical subjectivity instead of a political subjectivity. Aimed at undergraduates, it facilitates critical purchase on arguments which attack the standpoint of relatively powerless groups/organizations (who seek political change). Via corpus linguistic analysis of appropriate web-based data, I show how the analyst can rigorously find out at scale the recurrent key concerns of a relatively powerless Other with whom they were previously unfamiliar. They use this counter-discourse information as a lens on an argument which criticises the relatively powerless group, ascertaining whether or not the argument has distorted the group’s key concerns. Should this be the case, I highlight how the analyst can go on to explore whether any mischaracterisation has implications for the argument’s credibility because it loses coherence relative to the outlook of the Other. The approach is grounded in Jacques Derrida’s ‘ethics of hospitality to the Other’. It is in being hospitable to the outlook of a relatively powerless Other, and adopting it for purposes of argument evaluation, that the analyst effectively creates an ethical subjectivity. That said, the ethical and political are, in principle, relatable with this method as I indicate. Keywords: absences; argumentation; change.org; corpus linguistics; counter-discourse; critical discourse analysis; ethical subjectivity; Jacques Derrida; online comments; text cohesion.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-315
Author(s):  
Cristina Mayor-Goicoechea ◽  
Jesús Romero-Trillo

Abstract The threat of the Islamic State is realised both in its attacks and its discourse. To illustrate the role of linguistic threats, the present study investigates the ISIS online propaganda magazine Dabiq by combining Critical Discourse Analysis and Corpus Linguistics (Romero-Trillo 2008; Baker et al. 2008). Following the two groups described by van Dijk (2003), which are represented by the in-group (ISIS) and the out-group (against ISIS), we propose a third element: the translocal group (i.e., the people in between). The results show the substantial presence of linguistic strategies enhanced by Dangerous Speech (Benesch 2013) to create a high segregation between the groups. Also, the analysis shows the inextricable relationship between conflict and dangerous language and the need to investigate this link further, with special reference to the polarisation of the groups and to the subsequent escalation of violence in discourse.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 6419
Author(s):  
Yawen Han ◽  
Wenxuan Li ◽  
Min Bao ◽  
Xinyu Cao

In recent years, as a response to the internationalization of higher education worldwide, China has begun to enroll international students to study at the tertiary level on an increasingly large scale. While the majority of the programs and courses are open to international students via Chinese as Chinese-medium instruction (CMI), there are also an increasing number of programs and courses delivered through English-medium instruction (EMI). In order to understand higher education multilingual contexts, this qualitative study examines how local students and faculty members make sense of their engagement with international students in three Chinese universities. In the study, we conducted in-depth interviews with 11 academics who worked with international students as project supervisors and 25 Chinese university students regarding their experiences of working with international students. The findings that emerged from the thematic analysis revealed that international students’ learning engagement was profoundly mediated by language barriers, cultural assumptions and the academic conventions in host institutions. The study revealed that Chinese academics are concerned about international students’ learning attitudes, their academic progress and a lack of participation due to their language ability. Local Chinese students also reported a lack of satisfaction in working with international students. Some of the local students felt that some international students may have been enabled to enroll in the academic programs as a result of national and university policies, which has led to a ‘dumbing down’ of the curriculum offered in English. The findings indicate that more needs to be done to promote mutual exchanges and better understanding among international students, Chinese faculty members and local students.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-194
Author(s):  
Christos Sagredos

Abstract The representation of sex work in the media has received little to no attention in the field of linguistics and discourse analysis. Given that news discourse can have a huge impact on public opinions, ideologies and norms, and the setting of political agendas and policies (van Dijk 1989), the study adopts a Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis (CACDA) approach (Baker, Gabrielatos, KhosraviNik, Krzyżanowski, McEnery & Wodak 2008), seeking to explore whether journalists reproduce or challenge negative stereotypes vis-à-vis sex work. Examining 82 articles published in three Greek newspapers (Kathimerini, TA NEA, Efimerida ton Syntakton) in 2017, this paper considers the lexico-grammatical choices that are typically involved in the representation of sex work and sex workers in the Press. Drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics, the Discourse Historical Approach and corpus linguistics, the analysis links the textual findings (micro-level context) with the discourse practice context (meso-context) as well as the social context in which sex work occurs (macro-context). Findings illustrate that although sex work in Greece has been legalised for about two decades, traces of abolitionist discourses can be found in the Press, building barriers in the emancipatory efforts of sex workers who stand up for having equal civil and labour rights as their fellow citizens.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 467-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeongyeon Kim ◽  
Jinsook Choi ◽  
Bradley Tatar

This case study examined the reactions of local students to the diversity in student population. Specifically, it investigated how the local students’ intercultural sensitivity to the international students is interrelated with their perception of the English-medium instruction (EMI) policy. The quantitative and qualitative analyses of the questionnaire responses of 213 college students and the subsequent interviews with 15 students revealed a lack of intercultural sensitivity which was correlated with their perception of EMI. The findings indicated that the local students’ different perceptions of the policy interplayed, directly and indirectly, with their sensitivity to the cultures of international students. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of cultivating intercultural sensitivity in an English as a lingua franca context.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Li

<p>Critical Metaphor Analysis is concerned with integrating critical discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, pragmatics and cognitive linguistics to explore implicit speaker intentions and covert power relations through the analysis of metaphoric expressions. CMA has been a meaningful enrichment of both Critical Discourse Analysis and Conceptual Metaphor Theory. This paper aims to give an overview of the formation of CMA, the research findings, the existing problems and the possible solutions.</p>


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